[9-1] What does God say in Romans Chapter 1? (Romans 1:1-32)

What is being said in the words from Romans 1:1-17?

Romans 1:1-17 are the words that summarize and show in the introduction the identity and power of the gospel, and how salvation is given. These verses are like a kind of ‘Gospel Manifesto’ that opens the entire book of Romans. First, in verses 1 through 7, Paul introduces himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and an apostle set apart for the gospel. This gospel is not a new doctrine made by humans, but the ‘gospel of God’ that was already promised in the Scriptures through the prophets. The center of the gospel is Jesus Christ. As to the flesh, He was born from the lineage of David, and as to the spirit of holiness, He is the Son of God, possessing the power of resurrection from the dead. Through this Jesus Christ, the apostolic office was given, and this gospel is delivered to all who are called, without distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Between verses 8 and 15, Paul gives thanks to God that the faith of the Roman saints is being proclaimed throughout the Paul confesses that he is a ‘debtor’ to all—Greeks and barbarians, the wise and the foolish—and declares that he is ready to preach the gospel to those in Rome as well.

The final verse, 17, is a central verse that contains the core theme of the entire book of Romans. Ultimately, Romans 1:1-17 suggests that the gospel originated from God, is centered on Jesus Christ, and is the power of God that saves all who believe. The doctrine and argumentation of the entire book of Romans are firmly established on this declaration: that salvation is not by human works but is given by faith, completed by the righteousness of God.

Through whom was the gospel of God completed?

The gospel of God was perfectly completed through Jesus Christ. The Bible clearly testifies that the gospel is not a mere idea or doctrine, but a fact of salvation accomplished through the actual historical work of one person. Above all, the gospel was completed not just by remaining a promise, but by being ‘fulfilled.’ God promised the gospel beforehand through the prophets of the Old Testament, and that promise was completed by being actually realized in Jesus Christ. Romans 1:2-4 says that this gospel is what God promised beforehand in the Scriptures, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, who as to His flesh was a descendant of David, and who through the resurrection was declared to be the Son of God in power. In other words, the gospel is not a human enlightenment but an event of God’s plan fulfilled in time.

Furthermore, the entire ministry of Jesus Christ is the very completion of the gospel. The gospel of God is not limited to any single part of Jesus’ ministry but was accomplished through His entire life and work. Thus, the gospel became a perfect salvation that needs no further addition.

This completion of the gospel was possible not by human merit but only by the work of God. The gospel of God was not completed by human cooperation but was entirely accomplished by God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the gospel does not depend on human decision or effort. It is an object to be received by faith, not a process we create. The apostles did not preach the gospel as a ‘salvation in progress’ but testified to it as a salvation already accomplished in Christ.

Ultimately, it is clear why the gospel was completed only through Jesus Christ. This is because the problem of sin cannot be solved by humans themselves, the judgment on sin can only be borne by God, and salvation itself must be accomplished by God to be true salvation. That is why God did not stop at sending angels or prophets, but completed the gospel by sending His own Son directly. In summary, the gospel of God was not created by the church, nor completed as a theological system, nor established by human acts of faith. It is the history of salvation that God Himself accomplished and completed through Jesus Christ; therefore, the gospel is not something to which believers must add, but a complete gift from God to be received by faith.

Regarding the physical lineage of Jesus Christ

The physical lineage of Jesus Christ is the decisive evidence that shows how the Bible’s promise of salvation was fulfilled in actual history. The gospel does not simply remain a conceptual or spiritual declaration. The gospel was completed through a clear lineage and a birth in history. The Bible does not introduce Jesus as an illusion or a simple Romans 1:3 clearly testifies, “concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” This means that Jesus is a historical figure who came as an actual human, and that He physically fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

From the Old Testament times, God repeatedly promised that the Messiah would come from the house of David, and this promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ exactly as it was spoken. By coming as a descendant of King David, Jesus was qualified as the legitimate Messiah who inherits the royal line. Matthew and Luke testify to Jesus’ Davidic lineage from different perspectives, confirming its legitimacy. Although Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, His body was clearly born of Mary, and thus He possessed a true human nature. Through this, Jesus became a ‘true human’ who could bear the sins of humanity in their place, and at the same time, He became the ‘true Savior’ sent by God.

Furthermore, the completion of the legal lineage was also achieved through the relationship with Joseph. Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but as a descendant of the house of David, he performed the role of a legal father. Consequently, Jesus became a descendant of David by bloodline through Mary, and legally belonged to the royal house of David through Joseph. In this way, Jesus fulfilled the qualifications of the Messiah in both physical and legal aspects.

The reason why the physical lineage of Jesus Christ is so important is that because sin began with man, salvation also had to be accomplished through a Savior who put on a human body. The promise of God cannot remain an abstract slogan. It had to be fulfilled within actual history and lineage. In conclusion, Jesus is not a being who suddenly appeared from heaven, but the Messiah who was born within the genealogy of Abraham and David. The physical lineage of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham, the completion of the covenant regarding the Davidic dynasty, and powerful evidence that God Himself entered into human history. Jesus came as a true human with an actual lineage in order to bear the sins of mankind and complete salvation.

Is Jesus Christ the Messiah who came to this earth, according to the word of the Old Testament prophecies?

Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came to this earth exactly as foretold by the prophecies of the Old Testament. The Bible specifically prophesied not only the Messiah’s lineage, birth, ministry, and suffering, but also His death and glory, and it clearly testifies that all those prophecies were actually fulfilled in history. Above all, the Messiah did not come as a vague expectation or a simple promise, but as a ‘fulfillment’. God spoke in advance through the prophets of the Old Testament about when, where, and as what kind of person the Messiah would come, and those prophecies were precisely realized in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself also defined His ministry as the fulfillment of prophecy through His words, “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

The Messiah’s lineage and birth were also accomplished according to prophecy. It was prophesied that the Messiah would come as a descendant of David, and Jesus was born from the lineage of David according to that word. Furthermore, the prophecy of the prophet Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem was also precisely fulfilled through the birth of Jesus. This is by no means a coincidence, but the result of God’s promises meticulously interlocking in history. The nature of His ministry was also focused not on worldly power but on the salvation of souls. The Old Testament prophesied the Messiah not as a political conqueror but as a ‘servant’ who saves sinners. The ministry of Jesus, who preached the gospel to the poor, healed the brokenhearted, and proclaimed liberty to the captives, corresponds exactly with the image of the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah, and Jesus’ public life was the actual embodiment of this prophecy.

Especially, His suffering and death can be said to be the most decisive fulfillment of prophecy. It was prophesied that the Messiah would suffer, be rejected by people, and be killed on behalf of sinners. The image of the ‘suffering servant’ described in Isaiah 53 was fulfilled in the event of Jesus’ cross without a single error. He bore our sins on our behalf, received the punishment we were to receive instead of us, and made many people righteous through that death. In addition, because the Old Testament also prophesied that the Messiah would not remain in death, the resurrection of Jesus became the event by which God Himself confirmed that He is the true Messiah. The resurrection is the completion of prophecy and the proof of

In conclusion, Jesus Christ is the very Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament, who came as it was written without disobeying the word of God and perfectly fulfilled God’s plan, not human expectations. In Jesus, the prophecies of the Old Testament became not shadows but reality, and in Jesus Christ, the gospel became a complete fulfillment beyond a simple promise.

What was the Apostle Paul’s purpose in trying to testify to the righteousness of God by preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to Rome?

The reason the Apostle Paul wanted to go to Rome to preach the gospel in which the righteousness of God is revealed is clear. It was not simply because Rome was the center of the world at that time, but rather because it was a place with an environment where the gospel was most easily distorted. Paul held a fervent desire to establish the true essence of the gospel within the great city of Rome. The core value Paul sought to convey was not human zeal, morality, or the works of the law, but the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.

In Romans 1:17, Paul proclaims: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” At that time, the Jews sought to obtain righteousness by keeping the law, and the Gentiles sought to reach righteousness through Because Paul knew that neither of these two paths could ever lead to the righteousness of God, he wanted to preach to Rome the truth that only the righteousness freely given by God can save a person.

As the capital of the empire, Rome was a place where political power, legal systems, and splendid civilization were concentrated. This means it was a place that most strongly boasted of human ability and self-righteousness. From Paul’s perspective, Rome was a city where ‘human righteousness’ was piled up so high that the righteousness of God could easily be obscured. Therefore, Paul sought to tear down human righteousness in the heart of Rome and clearly proclaim the righteousness of God that is revealed only through the gospel. Rather than arguing over who was more ‘right,’ Paul endeavored to preach the righteousness of God instead of the law to the Jews, and the righteousness of God instead of philosophy to the Gentiles, by clarifying what must be believed for salvation.

Above all, Paul himself was a witness who had personally experienced the righteousness of God. He was a person who had tried harder than anyone to build up righteousness through the law, but he painfully realized that this path was futile. He confessed that his own righteousness was not from the law, He wanted to testify not to a simple theory, but to that life-giving righteousness he had actually experienced. Furthermore, Paul confessed, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise” (Romans 1:14), believing that the gospel was not the exclusive property of a particular group but a universal truth necessary for all humanity. In conclusion, the essential reason the Apostle Paul headed to Rome was to tear down human righteousness in the place where it was most rampant, and to proclaim the righteousness of God that is given only by faith, thereby inviting all people to the same place of salvation.

How does the gospel of the water and the Spirit reveal to us the work of God through Jesus Christ?

The gospel of the water and the Spirit, in which the righteousness of God is revealed, is not an abstract doctrine, but has revealed its substance before us through actual events in history. God has clearly revealed His righteousness, which justifies sinners, through the coming of Jesus Christ, His baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

The righteousness of God was first revealed, above all, through the coming of Jesus Christ. This was not simply a concept hidden in heaven, but an event that He caused to be revealed to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. The law only reveals human sin; it could not bestow righteousness. However, God sent His Son, who is righteousness itself, to solve the problem of sin directly, and this became the

Furthermore, this righteousness of God was actually completed through the medium of ‘water.’ The event of Jesus being baptized by John is not a mere religious symbol but a core event of salvation. Through this baptism, all the sins of humanity were transferred to Jesus, which means that the Old Testament system of the laying on of hands was fulfilled as a reality. The righteousness of God revealed in this process did not stop at merely covering up sin, but was a just procedure of actually imputing sin to Jesus to deal with it, and the complete fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Jesus, who thus bore the sins of the world through His baptism, completed the righteousness of God by receiving the just judgment for those sins on the cross. The righteousness of God never overlooks sin, and He executed righteous judgment on the One who bore our sins in our place. Through this, God perfectly harmonized His holiness, which hates sin, with His love, which saves sinners. The cross is the very place where this righteousness of God is most vividly projected.

Afterward, the resurrection of Jesus became the event by which God Himself proved that the salvation accomplished through the baptism and the cross is complete and valid. Through the resurrection, it was proclaimed to all the world that the price of sin was fully paid and the power of death had been overcome, and it was proven that the righteousness of God was perfectly achieved. If there had been no resurrection, the gospel would have been merely a declaration, but through the resurrection, the gospel was established as an undeniable historical fact.

This righteousness of God is being specifically testified to us today through the work of the Holy Spirit. It does not remain a historical event of the past but is confirmed in the hearts of believers through the testimony of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to believe that the baptism and cross of Jesus are the salvation for ‘my sin,’ and testifies that this righteousness has already been given to us. Therefore, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a history witnessed with eyes, a truth accepted by faith, and the substance of salvation sealed by the Spirit. This gospel is not a righteousness devised by man, but the perfect righteousness that God Himself accomplished and revealed. Just as Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5), this gospel is the one and only perfect way for us to enter the kingdom of God. ✉